For my Medievalist for a Semester Project, I've decided to do the project based on the text of Bolli Bollason's Tale of the Sagas of Icelanders. I'm curious of the text and wanting to learning more of Norse lore.
Checkpoint 1:
September 22: Selected the Medievalist for a Semester Project, preparing the beginning of reading the selected text and start planning visits to the library on free time for extra research for preliminary research. By next date, I hope to have read the selected text and start comprehensive research.
Summary of Bolli Bollason's Tale -
The story begins with the introduction of characters, Thord and his wife Gudrun who were wealthy farmers in Marbaeli. They had a neighbor farmer nearby who was unfriendly by nature and had a history of uncontrollable anger issues, Thorolf Stuck-up of Thufur, he was married to a kinswoman of Arnor Crone's-nose. There be a boiling point between the two farmers when Thord, who saw one of Thorolf's bulls loose once again which would come up and wound farm animals and damage stacks of hay, and would strike it down. After being told of Thord's deed, in an act of revenge, Thorolf enacted his rage onto Thord's son, Olaf, who was seven or eight at the time, killing him with a swift pierce through his spear. Telling his wife of his horrible deed, she responded negatively and Thorolf made his way to Arnor. He as well responded negatively and said he would not be able to protect the man from the punishment. Thorolf fled North; he would eventually find refuge in Hjaltadal, thanks in part to the lord of the land, Thorvald Hjaltasson.
Meanwhile, Gudrun asked her first cousin, Bolli Bollason, to take prosecution of the case, to track down and bring Thorolf to justice. In order to bring him in, Bolli needed Arnor Crone’s nose support to have justification for bringing him since Thorolf was able to receive the safekeeping from Thorvald and support of Starri of Guddalir, who was known for harboring outlaws. However, the two realize that they were outnumbered cause of the support from Arnor. Thorolf attempted to escape the justice by boarding merchant vessel but Bolli wouldn’t allow him to evade. Thorolf and Bolli would have a final showdown in Hruthafjord where Bolli emerged triumphantly, slaying the criminal.
Quotes/Close Reading:
They exchanged news and Thorolf told of the slaying of Olaf, saying "I look to you for support because of our family connections."
"You'll go blindly for that in this case," Arnor said, "as I do not value my connections with you more highly than my own honour. No protection can you expect from me."
The dilemma that occurred and history of Thorolf, Arnor knew that the situation has been raised and this was no farmer feud. The actions that Thorolf took in his blind rage not only escalated the conflict but killing a innocent person, a child, is going to have ramifications. There is no honour in killing a child, no amount of justifications can be made to do that sort of act. Arnor knew well of that and burning bridges was the only act that can be followed through in order. Even if Thorolf has family ties to Arnor, he's not going to have any luck finding safe refuge from him
"I don't think, Bolli, that you're headed for fair sailing, if you intend to prosecute a case here in the north against men as unjust as the ones involved here. They will defend the case by any means, whether just or not. But your case is certainly a pressing one, so we'll do what we can as well to see it successfully concluded."
The following is from Arnor to Bolli about the case he has on him. In order to prosecute and bring Thorolf to justice, there's going to be a lot of walls that are going to deter the prosecutor from bringing Thorolf to justice. With him being harbored in a place that's known to keep fugitives, Bolli is going to need a force that's bigger than the others to scare the leaders into bring the criminal from asylum within the borders of Hjaltadal. Arnor knows Bollis has a tough fight ahead of him but in light of the situation, Arnor will show whatever support he can give to Bolli.
"You have done well, Bolli, in paying me this visit. In doing so, I feel you have declared your great comradeship for me. And no better gifts will remain here with me than the ones you accept at parting. My friendship is also yours for the asking. But I suspect not everyone in this district feels well inclined towards you. Some of them, especially Hjaltasons, feel they have been robbed of their honour. I intend to follow you north as far as the Heljardal heath when you leave."
Bolli's determination and his heroism has brought him the recognition and honor. By bringing Thorolf to justice with swiftness in the act of killing him, Arnor tells Bolli that he will have his back and would follow him through the thickest of trouble. However, he's also setting in warnings for Bolli, that the killing of Thorolf has awakened a number of people on how far and brutal Bolli can be when it comes to tracking down criminals. Also, to kill someone who had as much influence as Thorolf did, there will be others who will come for Bolli for retribution for his actions. Arnor, again states he has his protection in any case.
Annotated Bibliography:
Annotated Bibliography #1: Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. Miller, William Ian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print.
The idea of honor and the self-consciousness of this honor system within this society. Miller explains how the honor system works in the society is like a status of higher order. The better the warrior, the more honor they seem to have. So when Bolli presents his case to the council against Thorolf, explaining the means of his right to bring him to justice and must be declared an outlaw, his honor goes up while Thorolf's status go down. Along with that, revenge which was a subtle overall theme to the tale was part of that honor system as well. Somehow that seems like a balance in a way for the society keep itself in peace with conflicts resolved. His case was that this was how peace was settled among the lands and tribes settled their conflicts.
Annotated Bibliography #2: Sagas are still alive and kicking for Icelanders. Wernick, Robert. Smithsonian Jan. 1986: 114+. General OneFile. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
The article of Robert Wernick discusses the historical and cultural impact of the Sage of Icelanders of countries that are linked with the Norse history and how it draws identity from those times. In parts of the articles, he makes comparisons between the middle age and modern Icelanders such as they remain fiercely independent, personally and politically. Modern Icelanders are as well courageous and strong like their ancestors before them as the people idolize the stories from the saga, not just cause of the heroic poems that told of their tales but also that their's physical evidence of these battles and conflicts. The article just brings to light how much history has come through the lands and transformed a country overtime.
Annotated Bibliography #3: The Icelandic Sagas and Social Order. Kalb, James. Modern Age 40.1 (1995): 98-99. EBSCO. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
James Kalb the author of the article discusses the topics of a more in-depth of the social order of Icelandic Commonwealth. The Brooklyn native draws parallels to America such as it was founded by Europeans and it developed into their own country with laws developed by common consent than by a king or a priest. He puts emphasis on both law and personal independence in the politic spectrum. One part of the article that puts some relations to the Bolli Bollason's Tale is that Icelanders have no right to enforce rights or obligations, which is interesting since Bolli's case to bring Thorolf in for the murder of Olaf, he wouldn't be able to gather the support he did in theory. He would of been on his own to capture Thorolf and there would be no direct agency that would go after Thorolf. However, a common code that was around during the time period helped forged alliances and kinships which was outside the laws of the lands, a set of special circumstances must be in play though in order for these alliances to be dispensed.
Annotated Bibliography #4: Reading For Character In Grettis Saga. Cook, Robert. Sagas of the Icelanders: A Book of Essays. 226-240. New York: Garland, 1989. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
The author, Robert Cook, makes an essay article describing of the wide range of events and people that are in the saga without giving any point of connection or basis to the reader. I have to concur with the author's idea and it's not a bad thing at all for the Sagas of the Icelanders. Like the Tales of Bolli Bollason, it's starts off with the introduction of Thord, Gudrun and Thorolf, and then it gets right into the conflict. Its the notion that you can start any story in the saga without having to backtrack to earlier chapters just to see if the story is a continuing one from a previous saga.
Annotated Bibliography #5: The Art Of Poetry And The Sagas Of Icelanders. Nordal, Guðrún. Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World. 219-237. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. Gudrun Nordal presents in this article the literacy and how the Sagas that were written had observers to the point of history to when the sagas were first written. These observers were poets who would cite their sources of the poems that tell their own tale with in some of the stories in the Icelanders Saga. These poems would then be read by scholars as a vivid depiction into the events in the poem. The article gives a strong emphasis to how clerics were also poets and observers as well in that time period as well. Annotated Bibliography #6: Rhetorical Persuasion In The Sagas. Lönnroth, Lars. Sagas of the Icelanders: A Book of Essays. 71-98. New York: Garland, 1989. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
In another part of the Sagas of the Icelanders essays, Lars Lonnroth presents the 'family sagas' term where these characters have a objective narrative where events are presented in a calmly manner with no value judgement to the characters of the story. Specifically, he states that how critics are able to identify without any difficulty to the heroes and villains in the stories, thus back then they're are able to as well to identifying these types of values. It's one of the characteristics of this story that I found positive that there was no twist or subplot that Tales of Bollison. Annotated Bibliography #7: Icelanders And The Kings Of Norway: Mediaeval Sagas And Legal Texts. Vésteinsson, Orri. American Historical Review 111.4 (2006): 1240-1241. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
In the article circulated by Orri Vesteinsson, the author has no critical or theoritical position but instead discusses contexts, components and outlining structures. The article is descriptive in text, comments on narration are largely formalist in nature, explaining how scenes are constructed, though the book works from as one example and explains positions on such why the sagas should be considered as having single authors. The article relates to in general the sagas tales and how stories like Bolli Bollason could of had a different author in similar context like the other tales.
Annotated Bibliography #8: The Sagas Of Icelanders. Adams, Phoebe-Lou. Atlantic 285.5 (2000): 130. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
This article by Phoebe-Lou Adams, the author makes a quick summarization of the Tales of the Icelanders, discussing in quick words of how the tales vary from short to long, errie tales and how they are strangely familiar and intensely strange. One point the article tells about how the storytellers tell it as it is and still is in use for tales today. This article captured me with that detailing because it tells about of things were stranger than fiction in the Tales of Bolli Bollason with their characters and how they go through this journey of justice and how these techniques of storytelling is still used.
This review article by Janet Schrunk, it relates to Icelanders and The Kings of Norway article by Orri Vesteinsson, it begins broadly and basically, defining the word saga and describing the cultural contexts of both saga events and saga writing. The progression is tutelary, offering an incremental approach to reading and understanding the tales. Schrunk also tells of the patterns of narrative to patterns of action, from narrator roles to lexical disposition, from characters and characterization to historical and literary constructions of power, with definitions repeatedly being made in relationship to the modern novel.
Reflection:
With the scholars and their texts, the concerns that I find that they present is the idea of settling feuds with such brutal violence and that somehow would find peace in these conflicts. Among that the influence the saga stories to the cultural and mentality wise of independence for modern Icelanders. Some of the concerns lie within the feuds are with how would they end without furthering more bloodshed after much has already been spread. When Thorolf killed Olaf and fled for Hjaltadal where outlaws like himself, Bolli had to gather a great force and had to do so by presenting a case to Hegranes Assembly for his prosecution. With case presented, he had a force large to outnumber Thorvald, Starri and his force and had to exile Thorolf. In this act, Bolli was able to avoid a lot of bloodshed by not going after Thorolf head-on.
Now to the link of the sagas to modern Icelanders, some of the mentality can still be found today, with most of the influence of that being that they live on an Island hundreds of miles away from mainland Europe. So most of the time, they had to make their livelihood on their own in order to survive, especially the folks who live in the most rural of the island country. This personal independence isn’t what helps the people strive on the island today, the idea of also forming bonds and friendships have a great meaning for the people of the country which is display in the story of Bolli Bollason and it still continues today where modern Icelanders.
Reflection on trends in Scholarship:
Query:
Some of the questions to arise from this research is the state of law of Iceland and a more in-depth history of Bolli Bollason. When the story begins, the reader is not given a history of Bolli, just the basic introduction of his character into the story but I wouldn’t have pegged him for a law bringer, prosecutor and executioner for the story. That said, looking through more of the saga, there were stories of Bolli Bollason before this. It’s kind of troubling for the reader when they see this person all of a sudden is this mighty warrior with no history if they start this particular story. And the law of the land seems to be a very confusing conflict with that there’s no laws except a code of morals which can go either way with whoever you meet in this time. Like if you find yourself on the wrong end of Thorolf, it’s over and there’s an unlikely chance that his crime would go unpunished. However there’s people like Bolli Bollason who exist in these sagas who are there to dish justice to the outlandish lands of Iceland.
Argument Against Scholarly Article:
Abstract:
With the research, examinations of articles, and comparing the texts has shown in the Tales of Bolli Bollason, the idea of this lawlessness in the land with no enforcement by a central government but the idea of to achieve peace and resolve conflicts in the harsh lands of Iceland is with this strong sense of alliances and personal independence is the way to survive and strive. Articles that were researched into this tells of many narratives that made in the Sagas of the Icelanders and the Tales of Bolli Bollason sounds like the narrative is of objectification, as the idea of one man being able to chase after this one man, who the hero having everything against him that could cause a conflict to become a bigger matter. Yet from suggested research, the matters of these conflicts can be resolved with census of councilmen being able to see the situation in a moral sense to come to quick decision-making. These sorts of dealings are one of many observations from the literary texts, with many more made in this short tale of this lawbringer.
Medievalist for a Semester
Saga's of the Icelanders: Bolli's Bollason's Tale
For my Medievalist for a Semester Project, I've decided to do the project based on the text of Bolli Bollason's Tale of the Sagas of Icelanders. I'm curious of the text and wanting to learning more of Norse lore.
Checkpoint 1:
September 22: Selected the Medievalist for a Semester Project, preparing the beginning of reading the selected text and start planning visits to the library on free time for extra research for preliminary research. By next date, I hope to have read the selected text and start comprehensive research.
Summary of Bolli Bollason's Tale -
The story begins with the introduction of characters, Thord and his wife Gudrun who were wealthy farmers in Marbaeli. They had a neighbor farmer nearby who was unfriendly by nature and had a history of uncontrollable anger issues, Thorolf Stuck-up of Thufur, he was married to a kinswoman of Arnor Crone's-nose. There be a boiling point between the two farmers when Thord, who saw one of Thorolf's bulls loose once again which would come up and wound farm animals and damage stacks of hay, and would strike it down. After being told of Thord's deed, in an act of revenge, Thorolf enacted his rage onto Thord's son, Olaf, who was seven or eight at the time, killing him with a swift pierce through his spear. Telling his wife of his horrible deed, she responded negatively and Thorolf made his way to Arnor. He as well responded negatively and said he would not be able to protect the man from the punishment. Thorolf fled North; he would eventually find refuge in Hjaltadal, thanks in part to the lord of the land, Thorvald Hjaltasson.
Meanwhile, Gudrun asked her first cousin, Bolli Bollason, to take prosecution of the case, to track down and bring Thorolf to justice. In order to bring him in, Bolli needed Arnor Crone’s nose support to have justification for bringing him since Thorolf was able to receive the safekeeping from Thorvald and support of Starri of Guddalir, who was known for harboring outlaws. However, the two realize that they were outnumbered cause of the support from Arnor. Thorolf attempted to escape the justice by boarding merchant vessel but Bolli wouldn’t allow him to evade. Thorolf and Bolli would have a final showdown in Hruthafjord where Bolli emerged triumphantly, slaying the criminal.
Quotes/Close Reading:
They exchanged news and Thorolf told of the slaying of Olaf, saying "I look to you for support because of our family connections."
"You'll go blindly for that in this case," Arnor said, "as I do not value my connections with you more highly than my own honour. No protection can you expect from me."
The dilemma that occurred and history of Thorolf, Arnor knew that the situation has been raised and this was no farmer feud. The actions that Thorolf took in his blind rage not only escalated the conflict but killing a innocent person, a child, is going to have ramifications. There is no honour in killing a child, no amount of justifications can be made to do that sort of act. Arnor knew well of that and burning bridges was the only act that can be followed through in order. Even if Thorolf has family ties to Arnor, he's not going to have any luck finding safe refuge from him
"I don't think, Bolli, that you're headed for fair sailing, if you intend to prosecute a case here in the north against men as unjust as the ones involved here. They will defend the case by any means, whether just or not. But your case is certainly a pressing one, so we'll do what we can as well to see it successfully concluded."
The following is from Arnor to Bolli about the case he has on him. In order to prosecute and bring Thorolf to justice, there's going to be a lot of walls that are going to deter the prosecutor from bringing Thorolf to justice. With him being harbored in a place that's known to keep fugitives, Bolli is going to need a force that's bigger than the others to scare the leaders into bring the criminal from asylum within the borders of Hjaltadal. Arnor knows Bollis has a tough fight ahead of him but in light of the situation, Arnor will show whatever support he can give to Bolli.
"You have done well, Bolli, in paying me this visit. In doing so, I feel you have declared your great comradeship for me. And no better gifts will remain here with me than the ones you accept at parting. My friendship is also yours for the asking. But I suspect not everyone in this district feels well inclined towards you. Some of them, especially Hjaltasons, feel they have been robbed of their honour. I intend to follow you north as far as the Heljardal heath when you leave."
Bolli's determination and his heroism has brought him the recognition and honor. By bringing Thorolf to justice with swiftness in the act of killing him, Arnor tells Bolli that he will have his back and would follow him through the thickest of trouble. However, he's also setting in warnings for Bolli, that the killing of Thorolf has awakened a number of people on how far and brutal Bolli can be when it comes to tracking down criminals. Also, to kill someone who had as much influence as Thorolf did, there will be others who will come for Bolli for retribution for his actions. Arnor, again states he has his protection in any case.
Annotated Bibliography:
Annotated Bibliography #1:Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. Miller, William Ian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print.
The idea of honor and the self-consciousness of this honor system within this society. Miller explains how the honor system works in the society is like a status of higher order. The better the warrior, the more honor they seem to have. So when Bolli presents his case to the council against Thorolf, explaining the means of his right to bring him to justice and must be declared an outlaw, his honor goes up while Thorolf's status go down. Along with that, revenge which was a subtle overall theme to the tale was part of that honor system as well. Somehow that seems like a balance in a way for the society keep itself in peace with conflicts resolved. His case was that this was how peace was settled among the lands and tribes settled their conflicts.
Annotated Bibliography #2:
Sagas are still alive and kicking for Icelanders. Wernick, Robert. Smithsonian Jan. 1986: 114+. General OneFile. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
The article of Robert Wernick discusses the historical and cultural impact of the Sage of Icelanders of countries that are linked with the Norse history and how it draws identity from those times. In parts of the articles, he makes comparisons between the middle age and modern Icelanders such as they remain fiercely independent, personally and politically. Modern Icelanders are as well courageous and strong like their ancestors before them as the people idolize the stories from the saga, not just cause of the heroic poems that told of their tales but also that their's physical evidence of these battles and conflicts. The article just brings to light how much history has come through the lands and transformed a country overtime.
Annotated Bibliography #3:
The Icelandic Sagas and Social Order. Kalb, James. Modern Age 40.1 (1995): 98-99. EBSCO. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
James Kalb the author of the article discusses the topics of a more in-depth of the social order of Icelandic Commonwealth. The Brooklyn native draws parallels to America such as it was founded by Europeans and it developed into their own country with laws developed by common consent than by a king or a priest. He puts emphasis on both law and personal independence in the politic spectrum. One part of the article that puts some relations to the Bolli Bollason's Tale is that Icelanders have no right to enforce rights or obligations, which is interesting since Bolli's case to bring Thorolf in for the murder of Olaf, he wouldn't be able to gather the support he did in theory. He would of been on his own to capture Thorolf and there would be no direct agency that would go after Thorolf. However, a common code that was around during the time period helped forged alliances and kinships which was outside the laws of the lands, a set of special circumstances must be in play though in order for these alliances to be dispensed.
Annotated Bibliography #4:
Reading For Character In Grettis Saga. Cook, Robert. Sagas of the Icelanders: A Book of Essays. 226-240. New York: Garland, 1989. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
The author, Robert Cook, makes an essay article describing of the wide range of events and people that are in the saga without giving any point of connection or basis to the reader. I have to concur with the author's idea and it's not a bad thing at all for the Sagas of the Icelanders. Like the Tales of Bolli Bollason, it's starts off with the introduction of Thord, Gudrun and Thorolf, and then it gets right into the conflict. Its the notion that you can start any story in the saga without having to backtrack to earlier chapters just to see if the story is a continuing one from a previous saga.
Annotated Bibliography #5:
The Art Of Poetry And The Sagas Of Icelanders. Nordal, Guðrún. Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World. 219-237. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
Gudrun Nordal presents in this article the literacy and how the Sagas that were written had observers to the point of history to when the sagas were first written. These observers were poets who would cite their sources of the poems that tell their own tale with in some of the stories in the Icelanders Saga. These poems would then be read by scholars as a vivid depiction into the events in the poem. The article gives a strong emphasis to how clerics were also poets and observers as well in that time period as well.
Annotated Bibliography #6:
Rhetorical Persuasion In The Sagas. Lönnroth, Lars. Sagas of the Icelanders: A Book of Essays. 71-98. New York: Garland, 1989. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
In another part of the Sagas of the Icelanders essays, Lars Lonnroth presents the 'family sagas' term where these characters have a objective narrative where events are presented in a calmly manner with no value judgement to the characters of the story. Specifically, he states that how critics are able to identify without any difficulty to the heroes and villains in the stories, thus back then they're are able to as well to identifying these types of values. It's one of the characteristics of this story that I found positive that there was no twist or subplot that Tales of Bollison.
Annotated Bibliography #7:
Icelanders And The Kings Of Norway: Mediaeval Sagas And Legal Texts. Vésteinsson, Orri. American Historical Review 111.4 (2006): 1240-1241. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
In the article circulated by Orri Vesteinsson, the author has no critical or theoritical position but instead discusses contexts, components and outlining structures. The article is descriptive in text, comments on narration are largely formalist in nature, explaining how scenes are constructed, though the book works from as one example and explains positions on such why the sagas should be considered as having single authors. The article relates to in general the sagas tales and how stories like Bolli Bollason could of had a different author in similar context like the other tales.
Annotated Bibliography #8:
The Sagas Of Icelanders. Adams, Phoebe-Lou. Atlantic 285.5 (2000): 130. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
This article by Phoebe-Lou Adams, the author makes a quick summarization of the Tales of the Icelanders, discussing in quick words of how the tales vary from short to long, errie tales and how they are strangely familiar and intensely strange. One point the article tells about how the storytellers tell it as it is and still is in use for tales today. This article captured me with that detailing because it tells about of things were stranger than fiction in the Tales of Bolli Bollason with their characters and how they go through this journey of justice and how these techniques of storytelling is still used.
Annotated Bibliography #9:
Reviews. Schrunk, Janet. Scandinavian Studies 71.2 (1999): 263. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
This review article by Janet Schrunk, it relates to Icelanders and The Kings of Norway article by Orri Vesteinsson, it begins broadly and basically, defining the word saga and describing the cultural contexts of both saga events and saga writing. The progression is tutelary, offering an incremental approach to reading and understanding the tales. Schrunk also tells of the patterns of narrative to patterns of action, from narrator roles to lexical disposition, from characters and characterization to historical and literary constructions of power, with definitions repeatedly being made in relationship to the modern novel.
Reflection:
With the scholars and their texts, the concerns that I find that they present is the idea of settling feuds with such brutal violence and that somehow would find peace in these conflicts. Among that the influence the saga stories to the cultural and mentality wise of independence for modern Icelanders. Some of the concerns lie within the feuds are with how would they end without furthering more bloodshed after much has already been spread. When Thorolf killed Olaf and fled for Hjaltadal where outlaws like himself, Bolli had to gather a great force and had to do so by presenting a case to Hegranes Assembly for his prosecution. With case presented, he had a force large to outnumber Thorvald, Starri and his force and had to exile Thorolf. In this act, Bolli was able to avoid a lot of bloodshed by not going after Thorolf head-on.
Now to the link of the sagas to modern Icelanders, some of the mentality can still be found today, with most of the influence of that being that they live on an Island hundreds of miles away from mainland Europe. So most of the time, they had to make their livelihood on their own in order to survive, especially the folks who live in the most rural of the island country. This personal independence isn’t what helps the people strive on the island today, the idea of also forming bonds and friendships have a great meaning for the people of the country which is display in the story of Bolli Bollason and it still continues today where modern Icelanders.
Reflection on trends in Scholarship:
Query:
Some of the questions to arise from this research is the state of law of Iceland and a more in-depth history of Bolli Bollason. When the story begins, the reader is not given a history of Bolli, just the basic introduction of his character into the story but I wouldn’t have pegged him for a law bringer, prosecutor and executioner for the story. That said, looking through more of the saga, there were stories of Bolli Bollason before this. It’s kind of troubling for the reader when they see this person all of a sudden is this mighty warrior with no history if they start this particular story. And the law of the land seems to be a very confusing conflict with that there’s no laws except a code of morals which can go either way with whoever you meet in this time. Like if you find yourself on the wrong end of Thorolf, it’s over and there’s an unlikely chance that his crime would go unpunished. However there’s people like Bolli Bollason who exist in these sagas who are there to dish justice to the outlandish lands of Iceland.
Argument Against Scholarly Article:
Abstract:
With the research, examinations of articles, and comparing the texts has shown in the Tales of Bolli Bollason, the idea of this lawlessness in the land with no enforcement by a central government but the idea of to achieve peace and resolve conflicts in the harsh lands of Iceland is with this strong sense of alliances and personal independence is the way to survive and strive. Articles that were researched into this tells of many narratives that made in the Sagas of the Icelanders and the Tales of Bolli Bollason sounds like the narrative is of objectification, as the idea of one man being able to chase after this one man, who the hero having everything against him that could cause a conflict to become a bigger matter. Yet from suggested research, the matters of these conflicts can be resolved with census of councilmen being able to see the situation in a moral sense to come to quick decision-making. These sorts of dealings are one of many observations from the literary texts, with many more made in this short tale of this lawbringer.